So, a couple of pieces in the Grauniad about the criminalisation of dissent (here and here) and the use of facial-recognition technologies.
It turns out (and you may be wanting to sit down when you read this) that all that talk about civil liberties, the importance of democracy etc etc is, well “public relations theory at this point” (to quote Martin Blank from Grosse Pointe Plank).
Bite me, Jurgen Habermas.
Of course, if you’ve been paying attention this last – at very least – fifty years, you wouldn’t be surprised.
Where am I coming from with this? I’m reading a great book called “Wholly Round” by Rasa Gustaitis, a Lithuanian/American journalist who was interested in the then-newly-emerging ‘ecological consciousness.’
There’s a chapter on People’s Park. Short version – the University of California at Berkeley demolished some student housing and were eventually planning to build something else. In the meantime, locals took over the vacant space and wanted to turn it into a much-needed green space. It was a pretty popular move, with real potential for helping a lot of people learn about their own power and how it linked with groups that they had previously disdained or feared.
Obviously the state came down on it like a tonne of bricks. A protester was shot and killed, teargas, helicopters, the full whack. And the state won.
Here’s Gustaitis –
A year later, Dan Siegel, acquitted of the riot charge and about to retire as president of the Associated Students, will tell me:
What we learned is that power in this country is wielded by people who are not responsive to the will of the majority and that when an issue comes up that’s important to those people they drop all pretense of democracy and due process or regard for law and justice and simply maintain their position by naked force. We went through all the steps of working in the community, getting support from students and finally came up against the Regents and were told no. That made a lot of people reach the conclusion that the only possibility at all was revolution
(Gustaitis, 1973: 72)
marchudson.net 
Sadly, as the world’s population grows, as it will, the will be an increasing growth in authoritarianism. Control by force will replace Democracy, welcome to out Brave New world.